04 Apr Kreisky – A piece of Volkshilfe
The spirit of Bruno Kreisky appears to a little philanthropist and tests him to see whether he is fit for the heaven of social democracy. A modern Mr. Karl. A good man from Upper Austria.
The play explores the question of whether it is possible to live decently without being swallowed up by an ideology, but it is also a play about greatness, because at the end you no longer know who has more human greatness, the world politician Bruno Kreisky or the little philanthropist Bodo Kipfl, who has spent his life helping the needy.
A play about the demands and everyday life of politics.
FRANZOBEL, Author
CHRIS MÜLLER, director, concept, stage design
ALEXANDER STROBELE, actor
Drunken hamwanken – lho/Franzfurter Allgemeine Zeitung/Friday, Oct. 17. 2008.
In Austria, everyone knows Mr. Karl, the cabinet play by and with Helmut Qualtinger about the typical Austrian opportunist who was always involved everywhere – Social Democrats, Heimwehr, Nazis – but could never help it. Everyone also knows Bruno Kreisky, the legendary SPÖ Federal Chancellor. He of all people appears to Bodo Kipfl in a dream and wants to check whether Kipfl is fit for social democratic heaven in the event of his death – yes, apparently there is such a thing. This is all narrated by Kipfl himself, not unlike the situation in “Mr. Karl”. Only Kipfl is a completely different person, not someone who has made up his mind, but someone who ultimately stands by his principles, even if the ghost chancellor may not always like his actions. Then he grumbles, as he was so fond of doing in his lifetime, but leaves it at that. It wouldn’t be Stefan Griebl alias Franzobel if he could refrain from shallow puns à la “alle Wankhammer die besoffen hamwanken” (Austrian for: stagger home). Apart from that, he has also written a slightly maudlin but heartfelt play at the request of the SPÖ-affiliated charitable organization “Volkshilfe” about a minor functionary who looks back a little self-critically in stilted stage dialect (“I’m intelligent enough that I’m not particularly clever”). Incidentally, the premiere took place in November 2007, with Franzobel prescribing a starting time of 19:47. Rarely laughed so much!
